Rigor PLC

What are the components of core instruction? From Student Achievement Partners and Achieve the Core

Rigor “Rigor for the 21 st century includes a focus on skills for life: critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and leadership, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination.” (Wagner, 2008) “Rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, and each student demonstrates learning at high levels.” Blackburn (2008) 3

Three Components of Core Instruction Focus: alignment of lesson/unit expectations to the depth of mastery included in the standard Rigor: lesson delivery that develops fluency and skills in conjunction with conceptual understanding, but ensures mastery through application of the learning target Coherence: learning target is continuously connected to the prior lesson and the future lesson as well as across all content areas Note: See EQUIP rubrics in resource section for examples and further explanation. 4

How can you analyze RIGOR during walk throughs? 1.Is the lesson asking students to understand a concept versus memorize a process or definition? 2.Are the activities in the lesson asking students to apply their conceptual knowledge? 3.Is the teacher measuring mastery at the application depth of the standard and is this mastery expected for ALL students? 5

So how does RIGOR fit into these evaluative indicators? 1.Questioning 2. Academic Feedback 3. Thinking 4. Problem Solving Any other indicators? Note: Please open the digital copy of TEAM general education rubric for this discussion. 6 Questioning-Level 5

Core Instruction: Teacher Feedback on RIGOR Example from your school/district Rubric DescriptorTeacher Feedback Rigor Example A science teacher was teaching the concept of genotypes and phenotypes. He was matching terms while the standard asks students to apply, compare and contrast. Students are using analytical thinking, where students analyze, compare and contrast, and evaluate and explain information I am interested in the part of your lesson that had students matching terms. How does that meet the expectation of comparing and contrasting? How could you make this activity more rigorous by using a compare/contracts activity that asks students to apply their understanding and show you mastery at the application level? Rigor